Smart investors look for highly skilled managers in industries with a long-term competitive advantage in a stable industry run by decision makers with a "here-today, here-forever" mentality.
In that sense, the expenditure is hardly a scandal, merely representative of ministers' wider ambitions to attract highly skilled managers from the private sector to help the MoD get a tighter rein on its notoriously budget-busting capital programmes.
In an earlier study, I found that young, highly skilled managers considered training very important for their career development: Out of 14 practices, they ranked it third, behind high-stakes assignments and support from senior leadership and ahead of mentoring, coaching, and job rotation across functions or regions.
However, the source believes the FT story is accurate and that Tim Cook's recent behavior — hiring Angela Ahrendts from Burberry, former Leica engineer Ari Partinen, Nike's Ben Shaffer, and former CEO of Yves St. Laurent, Paul Deneve — is indicative of an effort to stock the Apple larder with culturally aware and highly skilled managers.
A chemical plant, he said, is a riskier proposition than a cannery; joint ventures with local partners are more likely to go wrong than businesses in which the foreign owner has more control; and high-technology companies are less likely to become targets for government takeover than some other businesses because their success depends upon highly skilled managers.
"This is an international industry, dominated by multinational companies who require a highly skilled, global workforce," said Jessica Burton, Oil & Gas UK's manager for special projects.
She's a highly skilled defensemen, a player with great puck skills.
Lawrence was a highly skilled draftsman.
"He is just a highly skilled propagandist".
